


Febrile - Crazy Christmas

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1535]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:01:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22367608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: Tony wakes up very late on Christmas Eve to a bloody knife on his nightstand. In a feverish haze, he heads over to Gibbs. Can Gibbs figure out what's going on and how will this affect the team's Christmas gathering?
Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1535]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/444514
Comments: 12
Kudos: 24
Collections: 2020 Twelve Days of Christmas, The Writer's Guild Community





	Febrile - Crazy Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 07/14/2003 for the word [febrile](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2003/07/14/febrile).
> 
> febrile[ fee-bruh l, feb-ruh l or, esp. British, fee-brahyl ]  
> adjective  
> pertaining to or marked by fever; feverish.
> 
> This is for Day 10 of the Twelve Days of Christmas challenge. Today's prompt is Sickness/Injuries.

Tony woke out of a dead sleep feeling sweaty and clammy. He wiped his forehead and looked towards his alarm clock only to flinch at the sight of his knife lying there, bloody. Not again. Tony couldn’t stop the panic. 

This wasn’t supposed to happen anymore. He had been cured. His father had paid a ton of money to get his deviant son fixed. 

He’d spent years in alternative schooling to prevent exactly this scenario from happening ever again. It had been bad enough when it happened as a kid. At least then, he could pretty much be guaranteed that whatever he had killed was some kind of animal and not an actual human. Now… Now he had no idea what he might have killed.

There was only one thing to be done. He had to turn himself in. He grabbed a clear plastic grocery sack and wrapped it around the bloody knife. 

Throwing some clothes on as fast as he could, he took the wrapped knife and ran out the door. He didn’t bother locking up. He probably should have, but he was probably going to go to jail soon and he wouldn’t be able to keep his possessions while there anyway.

He maybe should have headed to a police station, but somehow he found himself in front of Gibbs’ house. He actually had no memory of driving here and his head felt fuzzy and out of sorts. He tried to ignore it as he knocked on the door.

Normally he would have just walked in, but this wasn’t a normal circumstance at all. When there was no answer, he knocked again, louder this time. He only knew that he needed inside and the door wasn’t open.

“What?” Gibbs grumped as he threw the door open. 

Tony blinked as a person appeared in his view. Then he remembered the evidence. “Here.” Tony shoved the bag with the murder weapon at Gibbs.

“Tony? What’s this? Why are you here at midnight?”

“I don’t know.”

Gibbs frowned and started to unwrap the bag. 

“Be careful. It’s evidence.” Tony listed to the side a bit as he waited for Gibbs to move out of the doorway.

Gibbs managed to avoid dropping the bloody knife, but just barely. “What the hell, DiNozzo?”

“I think I murdered someone, Gibbs,” Tony murmured before collapsing on the ground.

“Ah hell, DiNozzo. Who?”

Tony didn’t respond and Gibbs looked down at the floor of his porch where Tony was now an unconscious pile. With a sigh, he pressed the back of his hand to Tony’s forehead and frowned when he felt how hot it was. What the hell was DiNozzo thinking wandering around at night in his febrile condition?

Gibbs set the bloody knife and its hastily wrapped bag on his coffee table before returning to his front door and his unconscious SFA. He’d deal with the knife later. First, he needed to call Ducky and see about getting Tony into bed.

He hit the speed dial button that would ring Ducky’s mobile. Squeezing his phone between his shoulder and ear, so that he could use both hands to deal with Tony, he waited until Ducky picked up. “My house. Bring your med kit.” Click.

He didn’t even give Ducky a chance to get a word in before hanging up and dropping the phone to the floor as he contemplated the problem of moving Tony. If Tony were conscious this would be no problem as he’d just let Tony lean against him, but he wasn’t sure he could actually carry DiNozzo up the stairs in his current condition.

Tapping Tony’s face gently with his palm, Gibbs attempted to wake him up. His frown deepened as there was no response. He tried again, harder this time. “Damn it, DiNozzo,” Gibbs muttered to himself. 

“DiNozzo,” Gibbs barked like he would if they were at work and he was trying to wake Tony at his desk. 

That got a twitch at least. It still wasn’t upward movement, but at least he knew DiNozzo wasn’t dead. While Gibbs was still trying to get his SFA to a bed, Ducky pulled up into the driveway.

“Jethro, what on earth is the rush? It’s Christmas.”

Gibbs just pointed at Tony’s unconscious body. 

“Oh dear. That is a problem.”

“I think he has a fever, Duck. He also claims he killed someone.”

“Anthony? Kill someone?”

Gibbs shrugged. “He brought me a bloody knife as evidence.”

“I dare say we should have Abigail investigate it, but first we must attend to young Anthony here.”

Gibbs nodded. 

Ducky tutted. “Help me get him upstairs, Jethro.”

Gibbs grunted and moved to one side of Tony while Ducky took the other. Between the two of them they were able to lever Tony’s unconscious body into an upright position and half carried, half marched him up the stairs. They moved slowly not wanting to jostle him too much or cause him more discomfort than he was already in, but finally they got him settled on the guest bed. 

Gibbs left Ducky to examine Tony while he returned downstairs to call Abby about the knife. He couldn’t believe that Tony showed up sick on his doorstep right as the clock struck midnight Christmas morning. This was definitely not how he’d expected his Christmas morning to go.

He had expected Tony to show up at some point in time. They often exchanged gifts and there was a team dinner planned later, but he hadn’t expected this. He retrieved his phone from where he dropped it after calling Ducky and frowned at the cracked screen. Hopefully it would still work.

He dialed Abby and waited until he heard her voice on the line. 

“Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs. Merry Christmas!” Abby excitedly chattered before he could tell her why he was calling.

“Need you to bring your kit,” Gibbs ordered gruffly, ignoring her excited greeting.

“What happened, Gibbs? Is someone hurt?”

“No one’s hurt. Just bring your kit. Need you to examine something.”

“I’ll be right there.” 

Gibbs shook his head as he heard the click. She’d hung up on him before he had a chance to. He really hoped that DiNozzo hadn’t actually killed someone. That would make for a really sucky Christmas for everyone if he had. 

It was bad enough that Tony was sick. He really didn’t want to think about what kind of disaster it would be if he’d actually killed someone. For that matter how could he have killed someone? 

He clearly wasn’t in his right mind when he came here. Gibbs was surprised that he’d made it here without getting into an accident. He clearly didn’t have the strength to remain conscious so the chance of him being able to kill someone in this state seemed slim and who knew how long he’d had a fever. It’s not like DiNozzo ever told anyone when he wasn’t feeling well.

You had to probe to get a straight answer out of him about any sickness or injuries. It was like he thought if he wasn’t at 100%, he was useless or something. Of course even when he was sick, Tony was still a better investigator than Tim on his best day.

Gibbs headed back upstairs to see what Ducky had found out from his examination. “Anything?”

“Well he definitely has a fever. It is worrying that he’s not responsive or waking up. If we can’t get him conscious then we may have to take him to the hospital, but first let’s get the fever down.”

“I’ll go get some frozen peas. I never eat them anyway.”

Gibbs quickly ran down the stairs grabbed both of his bags of frozen peas and brought them back upstairs. He handed them off to Ducky who set about repositioning Tony so that the peas could be used to help bring down his fever. “Towels too, Jethro.”

Gibbs nodded and stepped into the hallway to grab multiples. He was sure they would need them throughout the night. Ducky wrapped a towel around each bag of peas and then placed them against Tony’s body. 

He took another towel and wiped Tony’s forehead. “Can you get me a damp towel and a bowl of water, Jethro? Also a glass of water for when Tony wakes up? We’ll need to get fluids into him at some point or he’ll need an IV.”

Gibbs grimaced. While the IV would be easier with a non-responsive Tony, he would definitely prefer that Tony not need one. He ran off to procure the items that Ducky wanted feeling a bit like a boy being instructed to do chores, but Ducky knew more about taking care of Tony when he was ill than Gibbs did, so Gibbs was just happy to play his part.

He brought the water and damp towel to Ducky and thought that he might be able to relax and sit down for a bit. Only Abby walked through the door instead. 

“Gibbs? I’m here.”

“Coming, Abs.”

“So why am I here?”

Gibbs turned on the light in the living room and pointed to the coffee table. “Need you to process the DNA. See if it’s human or animal.”

“We don’t know whose blood it is?”

“Even worse we don’t know who did it. DiNozzo claims he did, but he’s currently upstairs with a fever, so who knows if he even did it.”

“Hinky. Abby’s on the case.”

“Thanks Abs. I’ll be upstairs with Tony.”

“You got it, boss. I’ll let you know what I find out.”

Gibbs stared at Tony as he slept fitfully. Ducky had fallen asleep in a chair and Gibbs was watching over Tony now. He had the damp cloth at his side and wiped Tony’s brow when the sweat became too much. 

Abby had been and gone. The blood turned out to be pig blood, so at least Tony hadn’t actually murdered anyone. Though where the dead pig was, was anyone’s guess.

Ducky woke up and switched out with Gibbs. They took turns like that for the rest of the morning. It was well into the morning hours as they worked to get Tony’s fever down. 

The good news was that Tony had woken up, but it was clear that he didn’t recognize where he was. Ducky indicated that the worst of it would be over when the fever broke. Gibbs and Ducky both had maybe two hours of sleep to their name and they’d completely forgotten about the team Christmas gathering until they heard the door open.

“Gibbs? You home?” Abby called out.

“Upstairs, Abs,” Gibbs yelled.

“What are you doing up here? Everybody will be here soon,” Abby protested.

“What? Why?”

“Christmas?” Abby raised a disbelieving eyebrow at Gibbs. “Did you forget?”

Gibbs grunted. “Been focused on Tony.”

“Ok. You keep that up. Abby’s got it all under control,” Abby ordered.

“Abs, what are you going to do?”

“Decorate and organize dinner. Just leave it all to me.”

“Ok, Abs. Try and keep things down. We don’t want Tony to feel like a sideshow attraction.”

“Not to worry Gibbs. The team will understand. They’ll want to check on Tony too.”

“We’ll exchange presents up here, Abs. I’ll move the tree.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Jethro. I don’t think we can fit the tree and everyone in here.”

“Sure we can, Duck. It might be a bit tight, but we’ll fit.” Gibbs grinned.

Ducky shook his head and wiped Tony’s forehead down. Gibbs vanished into the attic where he retrieved a small tree and some decorations and lights. He carried it all upstairs and into Tony’s room.

“Oh my,” Ducky stared in astonishment.

Gibbs moved the end table to a corner and set up the Christmas tree and quickly covered it in lights and ornaments. Then he moved the presents that were under the big tree downstairs to under the end table and in the small tree. Next, he retrieved a bunch of chairs so that they could all sit around Tony. 

Tony was still mostly out of it when everyone else arrived, but they fever had finally broken so he was on the mend at least. It was a more subdued crowd that opened presents and ate dinner, but none of them would want to be anywhere else. 

When Tony finally opened his eyes and actually looked lucid everyone cheered, “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas. What happened?” Tony mumbled in confusion.

“You murdered a pig and then showed up at my doorstep out of your mind with fever.”

“I what?” Tony asked, shocked.

The entire room laughed and handed over his presents for him to unwrap. It was just a normal team Christmas, really.

**Author's Note:**

> The dictionary.com series has no stories already written for it after this one, so I will be posting at least no more stories before I stop posting again. I'm hoping to get more stories written before then, so that I don't stop posting for a while. Wish me luck! 
> 
> The 2020 Prompts are open now! Go forth and prompt me! [Click here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2020/profile) to add your prompts to my 2020 Prompt Collection. Just click the sign up link. ;) I'm hoping to complete all the 2020 prompts by the end of 2021. 
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes. Please note if you have already voted in the poll and would like to request more stories you can just add a comment to the poll. Please include the name along with the prompt, so that I can appropriately gift the prompt to you.
> 
> For any authors that want to chat and/or are looking for a place where they can toss plot ideas around and get input from people, you can come join my discord server that is specifically geared towards writing/encouraging people to write and authors. The invite link is [here](https://discord.gg/HFvwpCq). If you're not an author, but want to chat with me about writing/stories or anything else you are welcome to join. I reserve the right to boot you from my server if all you do is pester me about updates, however. *grin* Really anyone who wants to talk about writing and/or plot ideas for various stories is welcome to join. 
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 


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